Process and apparatus for treatng hydrocarbons



April 28, 1925.

W.- R. HOWARD PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR TREATING HYDROGARBONS OriginalFiled Sept. 8, 1919 Patented Apr. 283i, 1925.

UNITED STATES 153%,724 PATENT r1,Ol-Flcr-J.;

WILLIAM n. zowaar, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, alssIeNon To UNIvansaLOII.Paon- Ucrs COmrANY, on CHICAGO, ILLINOIS. a CORPORATION or scorrifaxora.

PROCESS A'ND APPARATUS FOR TBEATNG HYDBDCABBONS Application ledSeptember 8, 1919,- Serial NO. 322,456. Renewed December 27, 1924.

To all whom z'tmay concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. HOWARD, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of Chicago, county of Cook and State of Illinois,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes andApparatus for Treating Hydrocarbons, of

' which the following is a s ecification.

'Ihis invention relates primarily to the so- 10 called cracking1 ofpetroleum 'oil or in other words, to the conversion of hgh boiling pointto low boiling point hydrocarbons such as gasoline. The process ispreferably 'operated as a 'continuous one in which the 35 oil passesthrough a Cracking zone to a vapor chamber, thence the vapors aresubjected t0 a reilux'condensing action and inally to a water condenser.l

In the present'invention, the rei'luxed condensate instead of return'ngto the original cracking zone is delivered to a separate chamber andrevaporized. J This prevents the lighter., vapors from being overtreated and also prevents carbon from being returned to the 'primarycracking zone.

- In the drawing, the single figure desig" `nates a more or lessdiagrammatic view of my apparatus. l

Referring in the detail to the drawing,` 1

, designates a fire box in which lis mounted an endless heating coil 2,which forms a crack ingl Zone. O11 is supplied to this coil 2through'pipe 3l from pump 4 from any suit- 'f able source of`supply. Theoil passes into Y QVv'apor'or expanson chamber 5 through pipe 6. 4The vaor's generated pass out through vapor line i) into the standard 8 of anaerial condenserV 9. It is to be noted that` the pipe 7 enters thestandard 8 at a point above the lower end-of the latter and is providedwith a check ,valve 10. `The arrangement pi'pe .7 only in the direction'of the arrow.

l The unvaporized-oil isdrawn out through the drawoff .pi-pe4 l1,controlled by valve 12.

The heavier vapors in the aerial 9l will conydgznse and fallback intothe standard 8. The uncondensed vapors pass out through 'the gooseneck13 into coil 14 in water condenser 15. From coil 14 the condensed va rsand vinco'ndensable gases pass into receivlng tanky 16 by means of pipe17. A gas outlet 18 con- -`trolled by valve 19 is provided, as is also aliquid drawoii' pipe v20 controlled by valve 21. valve 22 may also beprovided in the.

gooseneck 13.

j The condensed distillates which fall hack` in a :furnace 25 so that itcan beheated. The

-vapors generated -in the still `24 pass out through line 26 into thestandard Sand are subjected to thel condensing action of the' aerialreflux condensers. Cheek valves-27 Aand .28 are interposed in the lines23 .and 26 'and so arranged that the oil and vapors can pass' throughthe lines 23 andj26'only vin directon of the arrows. A. girawo line 29leads from the lower end :of the still 24 and is provided with valve 30.

The oil to be treated may be of any desired character and the pressureand temperature used maybe varied within relatively wide limits. Thefollowing illustrative'run on gas -'oil from the Kansas field mayhgiven. The

`whole system maybe kept under a pressure outletzvalves.

`of say 100 lbs. by' controlling the various' The Oil temperature in thecoil 2 may be `650" F. while the' temperature. in the still 24 may be800 F. The reason for this is .that the charging stock contains more lowlboiling point consttutents than does the .condensate returning to thestill 24. .It

'will be seen that the'partially cracked re- 'iluxe'd condensate is inelect shuttle cocked,

-romthe aerial to the still 24V and return.

{By properly regulating the size of the aerial 9 substantially any endpoint gasoline may he made. In other words, with agiven gas oil theaerial 49 can be. of such size that it will'be at all times kept at atemperature of 1s such that the vapors can pass through the A 400;F.,hence nothing boiling above 400 will pass out through the goose neck 13.

It'istoi be understood that a quantity "'of oil is constantly, fedto theap a- Y zone, thence to a vapor chamber located outside the'crackingzone, passing the vapors from the vapor chamber to a reflux condenser,passing a portion of the va ors, i. e. those of lowerboiling point to anal condenser and receiving tank, returning the reluxed portion to a.secondarycracking zone, without intermingling it with the oil in thefirst cracking zone, redistilling the re-lux in said secondary zone andcausing the vapors generated in said latter zone to return again to therelux'condenser, where a portion of them are again condensed andretreated in said secondary cracking zone and maintaining asuper-atmospheric vapor pressure on the oil during treatment.

2. A process of converting relatively high boiling point hydrocarbonsinto lower boiling point hydrocarbons consisting in passing the oilthrough a cracking zone, thence to a vapor chamber, passing the vaporsfrom the vapor chamber to a reflux condenser, directing the uncondensedportion of the vapors to a final condenser and receiving tank, returningthe condensed portion of said va pors to a secondary cracking zoneWithout intermingling it. With the oil in the first cracking zonesubjecting the reflux condensate to redistillation in said latter zoneand returning the generated vapors to the reflux condenser, andmaintaining a super-atmospheric vapor pressure on the oil duringtreatment. "f

3. 'n an oil converting apparatus, the combination with v'means forheating the oil to a cracking tem erature, of a vaporizing chamberconnected thereto, a refluxing means and a .condenser communicating withthe vapor chamber, a secondary still, areonnection between said reluxingmeans and said secondary still whereby the refluxed, condensate may beled from the refluxing means directly to the secondary still forseparate cracking treatment therein, a second. connection for returningvapors generated in the secondary still directly to the refluxcondenser, and means for controlling superatmospheric pressure on theapparatus.

WILLIAM R. HOWARD.

